LIVE: Iran claims second US F-35 fighter jet shot down over Tehran

Here are the latest developments from Middle East on the 35th day of the US-Israel war with Iran:

• Iran has claimed it has shot down a second US F-35 fighter jet forcing it to crash
• Donald Trump has said Iran’s electric power plants will be targeted after he boasted about a strike on the country’s tallest bridge
• Multiple fires have broken out at a Kuwaiti oil refinery after a drone attack
• Israel’s military has said cars, houses and a train station have been damaged in the latest missile salvo from Iran
• A French owned container ship sails through Strait of Hormuz in the first known transit linked to Western Europe
• Australians are cancelling their Easter holidays because of rising fears of fuel supplies in the country
• Pakistan has hiked petrol prices by more than 50 per cent – the second increase to costs in a month

Stick with us for the latest developments throughout the day.

The Iranian military has claimed two US fighter jets have been downed including a F-35 over central Iran.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the feared military arm of the Iranian regime, said the F-35 was shot down by its air defences with the pilot unlikely to survive as a result, according to a statement carried by Mehr news agency.

Iran said it also attacked an ‘enemy’ fighter jet over Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz but US military refuted the ‘false claim’ which it said had been made ‘at least half a dozen times’.

Last night Donald Trump boasted about an attack on Iran’s tallest bridge yesterday and warned power plants will become the next targets as the US steps up its attacks.

The US military ‘hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran. Bridges next, then ​Electric Power Plants,’ Trump wrote on social media.

Stick with us for the latest developments across the Middle East.

by Patrick Harrington, UK News Reporter

Iran still has half its missile launchers intact and an arsenal of thousands of drones, US intelligence sources have claimed.

The regime remains capable of ‘wreaking absolute havoc’ in the Middle East, they warned, despite weeks of US-Israeli bombardment against its assets.

Three well-placed sources told CNN that the latest American intelligence assessments indicate Iran retains significant firepower.

The estimates may include launchers that are inaccessible, such as those that have been buried by strikes, but not destroyed.

Iran still has access to roughly half of its original drone stock, two of the sources suggested, which would number well into the thousands.

Iran should make a deal with the US to end the war by offering to curb its nuclear programme and reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for sanctions relief, a former Iranian foreign minister said.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, who served as foreign minister from 2013-2021, claimed in an op-ed for American journal Foreign Affairs that Tehran had the ‘upper hand’ in the conflict against the US and Israel, but argued Iran needed to stop the war to prevent the loss of more civilian lives and damage to infrastructure.

‘Iran should use its upper hand not to keep fighting but to declare victory and make a deal that both ends this conflict and prevents the next one,’ Zarif said in the piece published late Thursday.

‘It should offer to place limits on its nuclear program and to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for an end to all sanctions – a deal Washington wouldn’t take before but might accept now,’ he added.

Authorities in Abu Dhabi have announced operations have been halted at its Habshan gas facilities.

The Abu Dhabi Media Office said work to export gas has been temporarily suspended at the site following drone and missile threats.

It said in a X post: ‘Abu Dhabi authorities are responding to an incident of falling debris at the Habshan gas facilities, following successful interception by air defence systems.

‘Operations have been suspended while authorities respond to a fire. No injuries have been reported. The public is advised to obtain information only from official sources and to avoid spreading rumours or unverified information.

The Habshan Complex was forced to previously suspend operations on March 19 after being struck by debris following an interception. The facility is a major gas producer in the UAE, processing roughly around 60 per cent of the country’s domestic gas.

by Richard Shirreff

Donald Trump’s bizarre speech to the American people in the early hours of yesterday revealed what a terrible mess he has backed himself into with this war – and how difficult it will now be to get out of it.

At one moment the President was threatening to bomb Iran ‘back to the Stone Age’ while in the next he was claiming the gallant US military had already won.

Meanwhile Tehran has closed the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off much of the world’s oil supply, with governments from Europe to Asia and beyond facing a forthcoming crisis likely to dwarf the crippling oil shocks of the 1970s.

Yes, the American military performance has been outstanding, with 11,000 targets struck, the enemy leadership decimated and its navy destroyed. But there has been no regime change in Tehran, and the mullahs keep fighting.

Yet, that may soon change, as Trump has in recent history reserved his boldest military actions for the weekend. This is when the markets are closed and stock prices at their least volatile. It was in the early hours of a Saturday that the president began his assault on Tehran that killed Ayatollah Khamenei, as was his capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. To that end, as the three-day Easter break begins, some experts are predicting a similarly bold strike.

Kuwait said an Iranian attack hit a power and water desalination plant today causing damage to parts of the facility.

The Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy said emergency and technical teams were responding under contingency plans to maintain operations and secure the site.

The Israeli military says it has struck more than 3,500 targets across Lebanon in the month since fighting with the Hezbollah militant group began.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2 after Iran-backed Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel to avenge the US-Israeli attack that killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Israel has responded with massive strikes across Lebanon and a ground offensive.

The Israeli military said Friday it had killed approximately 1,000 militants in Lebanon over the past month, with strikes targeting what it described as ‘terrorist infrastructure, weapons storage facilities, launch positions, and command and control headquarters’ belonging to Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s health ministry said on Thursday that 1,345 people had been killed and 4,040 wounded since the start of the war, including 1,129 men, 91 women and 125 children. The ministry said the toll also included 53 healthcare workers.

Hezbollah has so far not announced its losses.

A French owned container vessel has exited the Strait of Hormuz in what is believed to be the first known transit by a ship linked to Western Europe.

The CMA CGM Kribi sailed from waters off Dubai yesterday and navigated a route close to the Iranian coast by moving between the islands of Qeshm and Larak, according to Bloomberg.

Earlier today the ship signalled it was off Muscat, the capital of Oman.

The CMA CGM Kribi is a Maltese-flagged vessel which belongs to CMA CGM SA, a French shipping firm founded by Jacques Saadé – the billionaire French-Lebansese businessman.

Iran has allowed some ships to pass the Strait of Hormuz from countries it considers friendly but maintains the route is blocked to allies of the US and Israel.

Pakistan has hiked diesel and petrol prices by over 50 per cent, its second increase in less than a month as a result of the Iran war.

The price of diesel would be raised by over 55 per cent to 520.35 rupees ($1.88) per litre, and petrol by around 55 per cent to 458.40 rupees per litre.

‘It was inevitable to raise the prices due to the international market prices going out of control after the US-Iran war,’ Pakistan’s petroleum minister, Ali Pervaiz Malik, said in a news conference telecast on state television, along with the country’s finance minister.

Last month, the South Asian nation raised consumer prices ‌for diesel and petrol by about 20%, citing higher oil prices driven by the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Australians are cancelling their Easter getaways amid mounting fears over fuel supplies in the country.

Anthony Albanese, the Australian PM, urged people to use their cars less and take public transport more in the ‘coming weeks’ as a result of the Iran war.

Some have taken to scrapping their Easter plans as a result of the situation.

Elsa Ucak, 66, from Sydney, cancelled her trip with her husband because she could not justify how much petrol her getaway would use

‘We usually go to the countryside, but because of the petrol situation, we decided to stay at home this year. We usually go with a group of friends, everyone cancelled.’

Rachel Abbott, a 27-year-old art director, has also shelved her travel plans this Easter.

While she would typically go home to north-east Victoria, both the cost of driving and flights made her decide to stay in Sydney.

‘Work’s just been quite busy and flights are very expensive, and then if I were to drive, obviously it would be a lot more expensive,’ she said.

Australians who are travelling have also been advised to fill up their cars in the city as rural petrol stations are more at risk of running dry.

Israeli forces inspect the site of an Iranian strike in Petah Tikva yesterday

Israel’s military has reported a new missile salvo from Iran today, with its air defences operating to down them.

There have no immediate reports of casualties.

Israeli emergency services reported some damage to houses and cars from an unintercepted cluster missile, while Israeli military radio said a train station in Tel Aviv was damaged by shrapnel.